THE FESTIVAL OF RED LEAVES
The imperial visit to the Red Sparrow Court was to take place on the
tenth day of the Godless Month. It was to be a more magnificent sight
this year than it had ever been before and the ladies of the Palace
were very disappointed that they could not be present.[1] The Emperor
too could not bear that Fujitsubo should miss the spectacle, and he
decided to hold a grand rehearsal in the Palace. Prince Genji danced
the ‘Waves of the Blue Sea.’ Tō no Chūjō was his partner; but though
both in skill and beauty he far surpassed the common run of
performers, yet beside Genji he seemed like a mountain fir growing
beside a cherry-tree in bloom. There was a wonderful moment when the
rays of the setting sun fell upon him and the music grew suddenly
louder. Never had the onlookers seen feet tread so delicately nor head
so exquisitely poised; and in the song which follows the first
movement of the dance his voice was sweet as that of Kalavinka[2]
whose music is Buddha’s Law. So moving and beautiful was this dance
that at the end of it the Emperor’s eyes were wet, and all the princes
and great gentlemen wept aloud. When the song was over and,
straightening his long dancer’s sleeves, he stood waiting for the
music to begin again and at last the more lively tune of the second
movement struck up,—then indeed, with his flushed and eager face,
he merited more than ever his name of Genji the Shining One. The
Princess Kōkiden[3] did not at all like to see her step-son’s beauty
arousing so much enthusiasm and she said sarcastically ‘He is
altogether too beautiful. Presently we shall have a god coming down
from the sky to fetch him away.’[4] Her young waiting-ladies noticed
the spiteful tone in which the remark was made and felt somewhat
embarrassed. As for Fujitsubo, she kept on telling herself that were
it not for the guilty secret which was shared between them the dance
she was now witnessing would be filling her with wonder and delight.
As it was, she sat as though in a dream, hardly knowing what went on
around her.
Now she was back in her own room. The Emperor was with her. ‘At
to-day’s rehearsal’ he said, ‘The “Waves of the Blue Sea” went
perfectly.’ Then, noticing that she made no response, ‘What did you
think of it?’ ‘Yes, it was very good,’ she managed to say at last.
‘The partner did not seem to me bad either,’ he went on; ‘there is
always something about the way a gentleman moves and uses his hands
which distinguishes his dancing from that of professionals. Some of
our crack dancing-masters have certainly made very clever performers
of their own children; but they never have the same freshness, the
same charm as the young people of our class. They expended so much
effort on the rehearsal that I am afraid the festival itself may seem
a very poor affair. No doubt they took all this trouble because they
knew that you were here at the rehearsal and would not see the real
performance.’
Next morning she received a letter from Genji: ‘What of the rehearsal?
How little the people who watched me knew of the turmoil that all
the while was seething in my brain!’ And to this he added the
poem: ‘When sick with love I yet sprang to my feet and capered
with the rest, knew you what meant the fevered waving of my long
dancing-sleeve?’ Next he enjoined secrecy and prudence upon her, and
so his letter ended. Her answer showed that despite her agitation she
had not been wholly insensible to what had fascinated all other eyes:
‘Though from far off a man of China waved his long dancing-sleeves,
yet did his every motion fill my heart with wonder and delight.’
To receive such a letter from her was indeed a surprise. It charmed
him that her knowledge should extend even to the Court customs of a
land beyond the sea. Already there was a regal note in her words. Yes,
that was the end to which she was destined. Smiling to himself with
pleasure he spread the letter out before him, grasping it tightly in
both hands as a priest holds the holy book, and gazed at it for a long
while.
On the day of the festival the royal princes and all the great
gentlemen of the Court were in attendance. Even the Heir Apparent went
with the procession. After the music-boats had rowed round the lake
dance upon dance was performed, both Korean and of the land beyond the
sea. The whole valley resounded with the noise of music and drums. The
Emperor insisted upon treating Genji’s performance at the rehearsal as
a kind of miracle or religious portent, and ordered special services
to be read in every temple. Most people thought this step quite
reasonable; but Princess Kōkiden said crossly that she saw no
necessity for it. The Ring[5] was by the Emperor’s order composed
indifferently of commoners and noblemen chosen out of the whole realm
for their skill and grace. The two Masters of Ceremony, Sayemon no
Kami and Uyemon no Kami, were in charge of the left and right
wings of the orchestra. Dancing-masters and others were entrusted with
the task of seeking out performers of unusual merit and training them
for the festival in their own houses. When at last under the red
leafage of tall autumn trees forty men stood circle-wise with their
flutes and to the music that they made a strong wind from the hills
sweeping the pine-woods added its fierce harmonies, while from amid a
wreckage of whirling and scattered leaves the Dance of the Blue Waves
suddenly broke out in all its glittering splendour,—a rapture seized
the onlookers that was akin to fear.
The maple-wreath that Genji wore had suffered in the wind and thinking
that the few red leaves which clung to it had a desolate air the
Minister of the Left[6] plucked a bunch of chrysanthemums from among
those that grew before the Emperor’s seat and twined them in the
dancer’s wreath.
At sunset the sky clouded over and it looked like rain. But even the
weather seemed conscious that such sights as this would not for a long
while be seen again, and till all was over not a drop fell. His Exit
Dance, crowned as he was with this unspeakably beautiful wreath of
many coloured flowers, was even more astonishing than that wonderful
moment on the day of the rehearsal and seemed to the thrilled
onlookers like the vision of another world. Humble and ignorant folk
sitting afar on tree-roots or beneath some rock, or half-buried in
deep banks of fallen leaves—few were so hardened that they did not
shed a tear. Next came the ‘Autumn Wind’ danced by Lady Jōkyōden’s
son[7] who was still a mere child. The remaining performances
attracted little attention, for the audience had had its fill of
wonders and felt that whatever followed could but spoil the
recollection of what had gone before.
That night Genji was promoted to the First Class of the Third Rank and
Tō no Chūjō was promoted to intermediate standing between the First
and Second Classes of the Fourth Rank. The gentlemen of the court were
all promoted one rank. But though they celebrated their good fortune
with the usual rejoicings they were well aware that they had only been
dragged in Genji’s wake and wondered how it was that their destinies
had come to be linked in this curious way with those of the prince who
had brought them this unexpected piece of good fortune.
Fujitsubo now retired to her own house and Genji, waiting about for a
chance of visiting her, was seldom at the Great Hall and was
consequently in very ill odour there. It was soon after this that he
brought the child Murasaki to live with him. Aoi heard a rumour of
this, but it reached her merely in the form that someone was living
with him at his palace and she did not know that it was a child. Under
these circumstances it was quite natural that she should feel much
aggrieved. But if only she had flown into an honest passion and abused
him for it as most people would have done, he would have told her
everything and put matters right. As it was, she only redoubled her
icy aloofness and thus led him to seek those very distractions of
which it was intended as a rebuke. Not only was her beauty so flawless
that it could not fail to win his admiration, but also the mere fact
that he had known her since so long ago, before all the rest, made him
feel towards her a tenderness of which she seemed quite unaware. He
was convinced however that her nature was not at bottom narrow and
vindictive, and this gave him some hope that she would one day relent.
Meanwhile as he got to know little Murasaki better he became the more
content both with her appearance and her character. She at least gave
him her whole heart. For the present he did not intend to reveal her
identity even to the servants in his own palace. She continued to
use the somewhat outlying western wing which had now been put into
excellent order, and here Genji constantly came to see her. He gave
her all kinds of lessons, writing exercises for her to copy and
treating her in every way as though she were a little daughter who had
been brought up by foster-parents, but had now come to live with him.
He chose her servants with great care and gave orders that they should
do everything in their power to make her comfortable; but no one
except Koremitsu knew who the child was or how she came to be living
there. Nor had her father discovered what had become of her.
The little girl still sometimes thought of the past and then she would
feel for a while very lonely without her grandmother. When Genji was
there she forgot her sorrow; but in the evening he was very seldom at
home. She was sorry that he was so busy and when he hurried every
evening to some strange place or other she missed him terribly; but
she was never angry with him. Sometimes for two or three days on end
he would be at the Palace or the Great Hall and when he returned he
would find her very tearful and depressed. Then he felt just as though
he were neglecting some child of his own, whose mother had died and
left it in his keeping, and for a while he grew uneasy about his night
excursions.
The priest was puzzled when he heard that Genji had taken Murasaki to
live with him, but saw no harm in it and was delighted that she should
be so well cared for. He was gratified too when Genji begged that the
services in the dead nun’s memory should be celebrated with special
pomp and magnificence.
When he went to Fujitsubo’s palace, anxious to see for himself whether
she was keeping her health, he was met by a posse of waiting-women
(Myōbus, Chūnagons, Nakatsukasas and the like) and Fujitsubo
herself showed, to his great disappointment, no sign of appearing.
They gave a good account of her, which somewhat allayed his anxiety,
and had passed on to general gossip when it was announced that Prince
Hyōbukyō[8] had arrived. Genji at once went out to speak to him. This
time Genji thought him extremely handsome and there was a softness, a
caressing quality in his manner (Genji was watching him more closely
than he knew) which was feminine enough to make his connection with
Fujitsubo and Murasaki at once uppermost in the mind of his observer.
It was, then, as the brother of the one and the father of the other
that the new-comer at once created a feeling of intimacy, and they had
a long conversation. Hyōbukyō could not fail to notice that Genji was
suddenly treating him with an affection which he had never displayed
before. He was naturally very much gratified, not realizing that Genji
had now, in a sense, become his son-in-law. It was getting late and
Hyōbukyō was about to join his sister in another room. It was with
bitterness that Genji remembered how long ago the Emperor had brought
her to play with him. In those days he ran in and out of her room just
as he chose; now he could not address her save in precarious messages.
She was as inaccessible, as remote as one person conceivably could be
from another, and finding the situation intolerable, he said politely
to Prince Hyōbukyō: ‘I wish I saw you more often; unless there is some
special reason for seeing people, I am lazy about it. But if you ever
felt inclined to send for me, I should be delighted ...’ and he
hurried away.
Ōmyōbu, the gentlewoman who had contrived Genji’s meeting with
Fujitsubo, seeing her mistress relapse into a steady gloom and vexed
at her belated caution was all the time doing her best to bring the
lovers together again; but days and months went by and still all
her efforts were in vain; while they, poor souls, strove desperately
to put away from them this love that was a perpetual disaster.
At Genji’s palace Shōnagon, the little girl’s nurse, finding herself
in a world of unimagined luxuries and amenities, could only attribute
this good fortune to the success of the late nun’s prayers. The Lord
Buddha to whose protection the dying lady had so fervently recommended
her grand-daughter had indeed made handsome provision for her. There
were of course certain disadvantages. The haughtiness of Aoi was not
only in itself to be feared, but it seemed to have the consequence of
driving Prince Genji to seek distractions right and left, which would
be very unpleasant for the little princess so soon as she was old
enough to realize it. Yet so strong a preference did he show for the
child’s company that Shōnagon did not altogether lose heart.
It being then three months since her grandmother died Murasaki came
out of mourning at the end of the Godless Month. But it was thought
proper since she was to be brought up as an orphan that she should
still avoid patterned stuffs, and she wore a little tunic of plain
red, brown or yellow, in which she nevertheless looked very smart and
gay.
He came to have a look at her before going off to the New Year’s Day
reception at Court. ‘From to-day onwards you are a grown-up lady,’ he
said, and as he stood smiling at her he looked so charming and
friendly that she could not bear him to go, and hoping that he would
stay and play with her a little while longer she got out her toys.
There was a doll’s kitchen only three feet high but fitted out with
all the proper utensils, and a whole collection of little houses which
Genji had made for her. Now she had got them all spread out over the
floor so that it was difficult to move without treading on them.
‘Little Inu broke them yesterday,’ she explained ‘when he was
pretending to drive out the Old Year’s demons, and I am mending them.’
She was evidently in great trouble. ‘What a tiresome child he is,’
said Genji. ‘I will get them mended for you. Come, you must not cry on
New Year’s Day,’ and he went out. Many of the servants had collected
at the end of the corridor to see him starting out for the Court in
all his splendour. Murasaki too went out and watched him. When she
came back she put a grand dress on one of her dolls and did a
performance with it which she called ‘Prince Genji visiting the
Emperor.’ ‘This year,’ said Shōnagon, looking on with disapproval,
‘you must really try not to be such a baby. It is time little girls
stopped playing with dolls when they are ten years old, and now that
you have got a kind gentleman wanting to be your husband you ought to
try and show him that you can behave like a nice little grown-up lady
or he will get tired of waiting.’ She said this because she thought
that it must be painful for Genji to see the child still so intent
upon her games and be thus reminded that she was a mere baby. Her
admonishment had the effect of making Murasaki for the first time
aware that Genji was to be her husband. She knew all about husbands.
Many of the maid-servants had them, but such ugly ones! She was very
glad that hers was so much younger and handsomer. Nevertheless the
mere fact that she thought about the matter at all showed that she was
beginning to grow up a little. Her childish ways and appearance were
by no means so great a misfortune as Shōnagon supposed, for they went
a long way towards allaying the suspicions which the child’s presence
might otherwise have aroused in Genji’s somewhat puzzled household.
When he returned from Court he went straight to the Great Hall. Aoi
was as perfect as ever, and just as unfriendly. This never failed to
wound Genji. ‘If only you had changed with the New Year, had
become a little less cold and forbidding, how happy I should be!’ he
exclaimed. But she had heard that someone was living with him and had
at once made up her mind that she herself had been utterly supplanted
and put aside. Hence she was more sullen than ever; but he pretended
not to notice it and by his gaiety and gentleness at last induced
her to answer when he spoke. Was it her being four years older
than him that made her seem so unapproachable, so exasperatingly
well-regulated? But that was not fair. What fault could he possibly
find in her? She was perfect in every respect and he realized that if
she was sometimes out of humour this was solely the result of his own
irregularities. She was after all the daughter of a Minister, and of
the Minister who above all others enjoyed the greatest influence and
esteem. She was the only child of the Emperor’s sister and had been
brought up with a full sense of her own dignity and importance. The
least slight, the merest hint of disrespect came to her as a complete
surprise. To Genji all these pretensions naturally seemed somewhat
exaggerated and his failure to make allowances for them increased her
hostility.
Aoi’s father was vexed by Genji’s seeming fickleness, but so soon as
he was with him he forgot all his grievances and was always extremely
nice to him. When Genji was leaving next day his father-in-law came to
his room and helped him to dress, bringing in his own hands a belt
which was an heirloom famous far and wide. He pulled straight the back
of Genji’s robe which had become a little crumpled, and indeed short
of bringing him his shoes performed in the friendliest way every
possible small service. ‘This,’ said Genji handing back the belt, ‘is
for Imperial banquets or other great occasions of that kind.’ ‘I have
others much more valuable,’ said the Minister, ‘which I will give you
for the Imperial banquets. This one is not of much account save
that the workmanship of it is rather unusual,’ and despite Genji’s
protests he insisted upon buckling it round him. The performance of
such services was his principal interest in life. What did it matter
if Genji was rather irregular in his visits? To have so agreeable a
young man going in and out of one’s house at all was the greatest
pleasure he could imagine.
Genji did not pay many New Year’s visits. First he went to the
Emperor, then the Heir Apparent and the Ex-Emperor, and after that to
Princess Fujitsubo’s house in the Third Ward. As they saw him enter
the servants of the house noticed how much he had grown and altered in
the last year. ‘Look how he has filled out,’ they said, ‘even since
his last visit!’ Of the Princess herself he was only allowed a distant
glimpse. It gave him many forebodings. Her child had been expected in
the twelfth month and her condition was now causing some anxiety. That
it would at any rate be born some time during the first weeks of the
New Year was confidently assumed by her own people and had been stated
at Court. But the first month went by and still nothing happened. It
began to be rumoured that she was suffering from some kind of
possession or delusion. She herself grew very depressed; she felt
certain that when the event at last happened she would not survive it
and she worried so much about herself that she became seriously ill.
The delay made Genji more certain than ever of his own responsibility
and he arranged secretly for prayers on her behalf to be said in all
the great temples. He had already become firmly convinced that
whatever might happen concerning the child Fujitsubo was herself
utterly doomed when he heard that about the tenth day of the second
month she had successfully given birth to a boy. The news brought
great satisfaction both to the Emperor and the whole court.
The Emperor’s fervent prayers for her life and for that of a child
which she knew was not his, distressed and embarrassed her; whereas,
when the maliciously gloomy prognostications of Kōkiden and the rest
were brought to her notice, she was at once filled with a perverse
desire to disappoint their hopes and make them look ridiculous in the
eyes of those to whom they had confided their forebodings. By a great
effort of will she threw off the despair which had been weighing down
upon her and began little by little to recover her usual vigour.
The Emperor was impatient to see Fujitsubo’s child and so too (though
he was forced to conceal his interest in the matter) was Genji
himself. Accordingly he went to her palace when there were not many
people about and sent in a note offering as the Emperor was in such a
state of impatience to see the child and etiquette forbade him to do
so for several weeks, to look at the child himself and report upon its
appearance to the Emperor. She replied that she would rather he saw it
on a day when it was less peevish; but in reality her refusal had
nothing to do with the state of the child’s temper; she could not bear
the idea of his seeing it at all. Already it bore an astonishing
resemblance to him; of that she was convinced. Always there lurked in
her heart the torturing demon of fear. Soon others would see the child
and instantly know with absolute certainty the secret of her swift
transgression. What charity towards such a crime as this would a world
have that gossips if a single hair is awry? Such thoughts continually
tormented her and she again became weary of her life.
From time to time he saw Ōmyōbu, but though he still implored her to
arrange a meeting none of his many arguments availed him. He also
pestered her with so many questions about the child that she exclaimed
at last: ‘Why do you go on plaguing me like this? You will be
seeing him for yourself soon, when he is shown at Court.’ But though
she spoke impatiently she knew quite well what he was suffering and
felt for him deeply. The matter was not one which he could discuss
except with Fujitsubo herself, and it was impossible to see her. Would
he indeed ever again see her alone or communicate with her save
through notes and messengers? And half-weeping with despair he recited
the verse: ‘What guilty intercourse must ours have been in some life
long ago, that now so cruel a barrier should be set between us?’
Ōmyōbu seeing that it cost her mistress a great struggle to do without
him was at pains not to dismiss him too unkindly and answered with the
verse: ‘Should you see the child my lady would be in torment; and
because you have not seen it you are full of lamentations. Truly have
children been called a black darkness that leads the parents’ heart
astray!’ And coming closer she whispered to him ‘Poor souls, it is a
hard fate that has overtaken you both.’ Thus many times and again he
returned to his house desperate. Fujitsubo meanwhile, fearing lest
Genji’s continual visits should attract notice, began to suspect that
Ōmyōbu was secretly encouraging him and no longer felt the same
affection for her. She did not want this to be noticed and tried to
treat her just as usual; but her irritation was bound sometimes to
betray itself and Ōmyōbu, feeling that her mistress was estranged from
her and at a loss to find any reason for it, was very miserable.
It was not till its fourth month that the child was brought to the
Palace. It was large for its age and had already begun to take a great
interest in what went on around it. Its extraordinary resemblance to
Genji was not remarked upon by the Emperor who had an idea that
handsome children were all very much alike at that age. He became
intensely devoted to the child and lavished every kind of care and
attention upon it. For Genji himself he had always had so great a
partiality that, had it not been for popular opposition, he would
certainly have installed him as Heir Apparent. That he had not been
able to do so constantly distressed him. To have produced so
magnificent a son and be obliged to watch him growing up a mere
nobleman had always been galling to him. Now in his old age a son had
been born to him who promised to be equally handsome and had not the
tiresome disadvantage of a plebeian mother, and upon this flawless
pearl he expended his whole affection. The mother saw little chance of
this rapture continuing and was all this while in a state of agonized
apprehension.
One day, when as he had been wont to do before, Genji was making music
for her at the Emperor’s command, His Majesty took the child in his
arms saying to Genji: ‘I have had many children, but you were the only
other one that I ever behaved about in this fashion. It may be my
fancy, but it seems to me this child is exactly like what you were at
the same age. However, I suppose all babies are very much alike while
they are as small as this,’ and he looked at the fine child with
admiration. A succession of violent emotions—terror, shame, pride and
love—passed through Genji’s breast while these words were being
spoken, and were reflected in his rapidly changing colour. He was
almost in tears. The child looked so exquisitely beautiful as it lay
crowing to itself and smiling that, hideous as the situation was,
Genji could not help feeling glad it was thought to be like him.
Fujitsubo meanwhile was in a state of embarrassment and agitation so
painful that a cold sweat broke out upon her while she sat by. For
Genji this jarring of opposite emotions was too much to be borne and
he went home. Here he lay tossing on his bed and, unable to
distract himself, he determined after a while to go to the Great Hall.
As he passed by the flower-beds in front of his house he noticed that
a faint tinge of green was already filming the bushes and under them
the _tokonatsu_[9] were already in bloom. He plucked one and sent it
to Ōmyōbu with a long letter and an acrostic poem in which he said
that he was touched by the likeness of this flower to the child, but
also hinted that he was perturbed by the child’s likeness to himself.
‘In this flower,’ he continued despondently, ‘I had hoped to see your
beauty enshrined. But now I know that being mine yet not mine it can
bring me no comfort to look upon it.’ After waiting a little while
till a favourable moment should arise Ōmyōbu showed her mistress the
letter, saying with a sigh ‘I fear that your answer will be but dust
to the petals of this thirsting flower.’ But Fujitsubo, in whose heart
also the new spring was awakening a host of tender thoughts, wrote in
answer the poem: ‘Though it alone be the cause that these poor sleeves
are wet with dew, yet goes my heart still with it, this child-flower
of Yamato Land.’ This was all and it was roughly scribbled in a faint
hand, but it was a comfort to Ōmyōbu to have even such a message as
this to bring back. Genji knew quite well that it could lead to
nothing. How many times had she sent him such messages before! Yet as
he lay dejectedly gazing at the note, the mere sight of her
handwriting soon stirred in him a frenzy of unreasoning excitement and
delight. For a while he lay restlessly tossing on his bed. At last
unable to remain any longer inactive he sprang up and went, as he had
so often done before, to the western wing to seek distraction from the
agitated thoughts which pursued him. He came towards the women’s
apartments with his hair loose upon his shoulders, wearing a queer
dressing-gown and, in order to amuse Murasaki, playing a tune on
his flute as he walked. He peeped in at the door. She looked as she
lay there for all the world like the fresh dewy flower that he had so
recently plucked. She was growing a little bit spoilt and having heard
some while ago that he had returned from Court she was rather cross
with him for not coming to see her at once. She did not run to meet
him as she usually did, but lay with her head turned away. He called
to her from the far side of the room to get up and come to him, but
she did not stir. Suddenly he heard that she was murmuring to herself
the lines ‘Like a sea-flower that the waters have covered when a great
tide mounts the shore.’ They were from an old poem[10] that he had
taught her, in which a lady complains that she is neglected by her
lover. She looked bewitching as she lay with her face half-sullenly,
half-coquettishly buried in her sleeve. ‘How naughty,’ he cried.
‘Really you are becoming too witty. But if you saw me more often
perhaps you would grow tired of me.’ Then he sent for his zithern and
asked her to play to him. But it was a big Chinese instrument[11] with
thirteen strings; the five slender strings in the middle embarrassed
her and she could not get the full sound out of them. Taking it from
her he shifted the bridge, and tuning it to a lower pitch played a few
chords upon it and bade her try again. Her sullen mood was over. She
began to play very prettily; sometimes, when there was a gap too long
for one small hand to stretch, helping herself out so adroitly with
the other hand that Genji was completely captivated and taking up his
flute taught her a number of new tunes. She was very quick and grasped
the most complicated rhythms at a single hearing. She had indeed in
music as in all else just those talents with which it most delighted
him that she should be endowed. When he played the Hosoroguseri (which
in spite of its absurd name is an excellent tune) she accompanied
him though with a childish touch, yet in perfect time.
The great lamp was brought in and they began looking at pictures
together. But Genji was going out that night. Already his attendants
were assembled in the courtyard outside. One of them was saying that a
storm was coming on. He ought not to wait any longer. Again Murasaki
was unhappy. She was not looking at the pictures, but sat with her
head on her hands staring despondently at the floor. Stroking the
lovely hair that had fallen forward across her lap Genji asked her if
she missed him when he was away. She nodded. ‘I am just the same,’ he
said. ‘If I miss seeing you for a single day I am terribly unhappy.
But you are only a little girl and I know that whatever I do you will
not think harsh thoughts about me; while the lady that I go to see is
very jealous and angry so that it would break her heart if I were to
stay with you too long. But I do not at all like being there and that
is why I just go for a little while like this. When you are grown up
of course I shall never go away at all. I only go now because if I did
not she would be so terribly angry with me that I might very likely
die[12] and then there would be no one to love you and take care of
you at all.’ He had told her all he could, but still she was offended
and would not answer a word. At last he took her on his knee and here
to his great embarrassment she fell asleep. ‘It is too late to go out
now,’ he said after a while, turning to the gentlewomen who were in
attendance. They rose and went to fetch his supper. He roused the
child. ‘Look,’ he said, ‘I did not go out after all.’ She was happy
once more and they went to supper together. She liked the queer,
irregular meal, but when it was over she began again to watch him
uneasily. ‘If you are really not going out,’ she said, ‘why do
you not go to sleep at once?’ Leaving her at such a moment to go back
to his room he felt all the reluctance of one who is setting out upon
a long and perilous journey.
It constantly happened that at the last minute he thus decided to stay
with her. It was natural that some report of his new pre-occupation
should leak out into the world and be passed on to the Great Hall.
‘Who can it be?’ said one of Aoi’s ladies. ‘It is really the most
inexplicable business. How can he have suddenly become entirely
wrapped up in someone whom we had never heard the existence of before?
It cannot in any case be a person of much breeding or self-respect. It
is probably some girl employed at the Palace whom he has taken to live
with him in order that the affair may be hushed up. No doubt he is
circulating the story that she is a child merely in order to put us
off the scent.’ And this opinion was shared by the rest.
The Emperor too had heard that there was someone living with Genji and
thought it a great pity. ‘You are treating the Minister very badly,’
he said. ‘He has shown the greatest possible devotion to you ever
since you were a mere baby and now that you are old enough to know
better you behave like this towards him and his family! It is really
most ungrateful.’
Genji listened respectfully, but made no reply. The Emperor began to
fear that his marriage with Aoi had proved a very unhappy one and was
sorry that he had arranged it. ‘I do not understand you,’ he said.
‘You seem to have no taste for gallantry and do not, so far as I can
see, take the slightest interest in any of the ladies-in-waiting whom
one might expect you to find attractive, nor do you bother yourself
about the various beauties who in one part of the town or another are
now in request; but instead you must needs pick up some creature from
no one knows where and wound the feelings of others by keeping
her as your mistress!’
Though he was now getting on in years the Emperor had himself by no
means ceased to be interested in such matters. He had always seen to
it that his ladies-in-waiting and palace-servants should be remarkable
both for their looks and their intelligence, and it was a time when
the Court was full of interesting women. There were few among them
whom Genji could not by the slightest word or gesture have made his
own. But, perhaps because he saw too much of them, he did not find
them in the least attractive. Suspecting this, they would occasionally
experiment upon him with some frivolous remark. He answered so staidly
that they saw a flirtation would be impossible and some of them came
to the conclusion that he was rather a dull, prudish young man.
There was an elderly lady-of-the-bedchamber who, though she was an
excellent creature in every other way and was very much liked and
respected, was an outrageous flirt. It astonished Genji that despite
her advancing years she showed no sign of reforming her reckless and
fantastic behaviour. Curious to see how she would take it he one day
came up and began joking with her. She appeared to be quite
unconscious of the disparity between their ages and at once counted
him as an admirer. Slightly alarmed, he nevertheless found her company
rather agreeable and often talked with her. But, chiefly because he
was frightened of being laughed at if anyone found out, he refused to
become her lover, and this she very much resented. One day she was
dressing the Emperor’s hair. When this was over his Majesty sent for
his valets and went with them into another room. Genji and the elderly
lady were left alone together. She was fuller than ever of languishing
airs and poses, and her costume was to the last degree stylish and
elaborate. ‘Poor creature,’ he thought, ‘How little difference it
all makes!’ and he was passing her on his way out of the room when
suddenly the temptation to give a tug at her dress became
irresistible. She glanced swiftly round, eyeing him above the rim of a
marvellously painted summer-fan. The eyelids beneath which she ogled
at him were blackened and sunken; wisps of hair projected untidily
around her forehead. There was something singularly inappropriate
about this gawdy, coquettish fan. Handing her his own instead, he took
it from her and examined it. On paper coated with a red so thick and
lustrous that you could see yourself reflected in it a forest of tall
trees was painted in gold. At the side of this design, in a hand which
though out-of-date was not lacking in distinction was written the poem
about the Forest of Oaraki.[13] He made no doubt that the owner of the
fan had written it in allusion to her own advancing years and was
expecting him to make a gallant reply. Turning over in his mind how
best to divert the extravagant ardour of this strange creature he
could, to his own amusement, think only of another poem[14] about the
same forest; but to this it would have been ill-bred to allude. He was
feeling very uncomfortable lest someone should come in and see them
together. She however was quite at her ease and seeing that he
remained silent she recited with many arch looks the poem: ‘Come to me
in the forest and I will cut pasture for your horse, though it be but
of the under leaf whose season is past.’ ‘Should I seek your
woodland,’ he answered, ‘my fair name would be gone, for down its
glades at all times the pattering of hoofs is heard,’ and he tried to
get away; but she held him back saying: ‘How odious you are! That is
not what I mean at all. No one has ever insulted me like this
before,’ and she burst into tears. ‘Let us talk about it some other
time,’ said Genji; ‘I did not mean ...’ and freeing himself from her
grasp he rushed out of the room, leaving her in great dudgeon. She
felt indeed after his repulse prodigiously old and tottering. All this
was seen by His Majesty who, his toilet long ago completed, had
watched the ill-assorted pair with great amusement from behind his
Imperial screen. ‘I am always being told,’ he said, ‘that the boy
takes no interest in the members of my household. But I cannot say
that he seems to me unduly shy,’ and he laughed. For a moment she was
slightly embarrassed; but she felt that any relationship with Genji,
even if it consisted of being rebuffed by him in public, was
distinctly a feather in her cap, and she made no attempt to defend
herself against the Emperor’s raillery. The story soon went the round
of the Court. It astonished no one more than Tō no Chūjō who, though
he knew that Genji was given to odd experiments, could not believe
that his friend was really launched upon the fantastic courtship which
rumour was attributing to him. There seemed no better way of
discovering whether it was conceivably possible to regard the lady in
such a light than to make love to her himself.
The attentions of so distinguished a suitor went a long way towards
consoling her for her late discomfiture. Her new intrigue was of
course carried on with absolute secrecy and Genji knew nothing about
it. When he next met her she seemed to be very cross with him, and
feeling sorry for her because she was so old he made up his mind that
he must try to console her. But for a long while he was completely
occupied by tiresome business of one kind and another. At last one
very dismal rainy evening when he was strolling in the neighbourhood
of the Ummeiden[15] he heard this lady playing most agreeably on
her lute. She was so good a performer that she was often called upon
to play with the professional male musicians in the Imperial
orchestra. It happened that at this moment she was somewhat downcast
and discontented, and in such a mood she played with even greater
feeling and verve. She was singing the ‘Melon-grower’s Song’[16];
admirably, he thought, despite its inappropriateness to her age. So
must the voice of the mysterious lady at O-chou have sounded in Po
Chü-i’s ears when he heard her singing on her boat at night[17]; and
he stood listening. At the end of the song the player sighed heavily
as though quite worn out by the passionate vehemence of her serenade.
Genji approached softly humming the ‘Azumaya’: ‘Here in the portico of
the eastern house rain splashes on me while I wait. Come, my beloved,
open the door and let me in.’ Immediately, indeed with an unseemly
haste, she answered as does the lady in the song ‘Open the door and
come in,’[18] adding the verse: ‘In the wide shelter of that portico
no man yet was ever splashed with rain,’ and again she sighed so
portentously that although he did not at all suppose that he alone was
the cause of this demonstration he felt it in any case to be somewhat
exaggerated and answered with the poem: ‘Your sighs show clearly that,
despite the song, you are another’s bride, and I for my part have no
mind to haunt the loggias of your eastern house.’ He would gladly have
passed on, but he felt that this would be too unkind, and seeing that
someone else was coming towards her room he stepped inside and
began talking lightly of indifferent subjects, in a style which though
it was in reality somewhat forced she found very entertaining.
It was intolerable, thought Tō no Chūjō, that Genji should be praised
as a quiet and serious young man and should constantly rebuke him for
his frivolity, while all the time he was carrying on a multiplicity of
interesting intrigues which out of mere churlishness he kept entirely
hidden from all his friends. For a long while Chūjō had been waiting
for an opportunity to expose this sanctimonious imposture, and when he
saw Genji enter the gentlewoman’s apartment you may be sure he was
delighted. To scare him a little at such a moment would be an
excellent way to punish him for his unfriendliness. He slackened his
pace and watched. The wind sighed in the trees. It was getting very
late. Surely Genji would soon begin to doze? And indeed he did now
look as though he had fallen asleep. Chūjō stole on tip-toe into the
room; but Genji who was only half dreaming instantly heard him, and
not knowing that Chūjō had followed him got it into his head that it
was a certain Commissioner of Works who years ago had been supposed to
be an admirer of the lady. The idea of being discovered in such a
situation by this important old gentleman filled him with horror.
Furious with his companion for having exposed him to the chance of
such a predicament: ‘This is too bad,’ he whispered ‘I am going home.
What possessed you to let me in on a night when you knew that someone
else was coming?’ He had only time to snatch up his cloak and hide
behind a long folding screen before Chūjō entered the room and going
straight up to the screen began in a business-like manner to fold it
up. Though she was no longer young the lady did not lose her head in
this alarming crisis. Being a woman of fashion she had on more than
one occasion found herself in an equally agitating position, and
now despite her astonishment, after considering for a moment what had
best be done with the intruder, she seized him by the back of his coat
and with a practised though trembling hand pulled him away from the
screen. Genji had still no idea that it was Chūjō. He had half a mind
to show himself, but quickly remembered that he was oddly and
inadequately clad, with his head-dress all awry. He felt that if he
ran for it he would cut much too strange a figure as he left the room,
and for a moment he hesitated. Wondering how much longer Genji would
take to recognize him Chūjō did not say a word but putting on the most
ferocious air imaginable drew his sword from the scabbard. Whereupon
the lady crying ‘Gentlemen! Gentlemen!’ flung herself between them in
an attitude of romantic supplication. They could hardly refrain from
bursting into laughter. It was only by day when very carefully painted
and bedizened that she still retained a certain superficial air of
youth and charm. But now this woman of fifty-seven or eight, disturbed
by a sudden brawl in the midst of her amours, created the most
astonishing spectacle as she knelt at the feet of two young men in
their ’teens beseeching them not to die for her. Chūjō however
refrained from showing the slightest sign of amusement and continued
to look as alarming and ferocious as he could. But he was now in full
view and Genji realized in a moment that Chūjō had all the while known
who he was and had been amusing himself at his expense. Much relieved
at this discovery he grabbed at the scabbard from which Chūjō had
drawn the sword and held it fast lest his friend should attempt to
escape and then, despite his annoyance at having been followed, burst
into an uncontrollable fit of laughter. ‘Are you in your right mind?’
said Genji at last. ‘This is really a very poor sort of joke. Do you
mind letting me get into my cloak?’ Whereupon Chūjō snatched the
cloak from him and would not give it back. ‘Very well then,’ said
Genji; ‘if you are to have my cloak I must have yours,’ and so saying
he pulled open the clasp of Chūjō’s belt and began tugging his cloak
from his shoulders. Chūjō resisted and a long tussle followed in which
the cloak was torn to shreds. ‘Should you now get it in exchange for
yours, this tattered cloak will but reveal the secrets it is meant to
hide,’ recited Tō no Chūjō; to which Genji replied with an acrostic
poem in which he complained that Chūjō with whom he shared so many
secrets should have thought it necessary to spy upon him in this
fashion. But neither was really angry with the other and setting their
disordered costumes to rights they both took their departure. Genji
discovered when he was alone that it had indeed upset him very much to
find his movements had been watched, and he could not sleep. The lady
felt utterly bewildered. On the floor she found a belt and a buckle
which she sent to Genji next day with a complicated acrostic poem in
which she compared these stranded properties to the weeds which after
their straining and tugging the waves leave upon the shore. She added
an allusion to the crystal river of her tears. He was irritated by her
persistency but distressed at the shock to which she had been
subjected by Chūjō’s foolish joke, and he answered with the poem: ‘At
the antics of the prancing wave you have good cause to be angry; but
blameless indeed is the shore on whose sands it lashed.’ The belt was
Chūjō’s; that was plain for it was darker in colour than his own
cloak. And as he examined his cloak he noticed that the lower half of
one sleeve was torn away. What a mess everything was in! He told
himself with disgust that he was becoming a rowdy, a vulgar
night-brawler. Such people, he knew, were always tearing their clothes
and making themselves ridiculous. It was time to reform.
The missing sleeve soon arrived from Chūjō’s apartments with the
message: ‘Had you not better have this sewn on before you wear your
cloak?’ How had he managed to get hold of it? Such tricks were very
tiresome and silly. But he supposed he must now give back the belt,
and wrapping it in paper of the same colour he sent it with a riddling
poem in which he said that he would not keep it lest he should make
trouble between Chūjō and the lady. ‘You have dragged her away from me
as in the scuffle you snatched from me this belt,’ said Chūjō in his
answering poem, and added ‘Have I not good reason to be angry with you?’
Later in the morning they met in the Presence Room. Genji wore a
solemn and abstracted air. Chūjō could not help recollecting the
absurd scene of their last meeting, but it was a day upon which there
was a great deal of public business to dispatch and he was soon
absorbed in his duties. But from time to time each would catch sight
of the other’s serious face and heavy official bearing, and then they
could not help smiling. In an interval Chūjō came up to Genji and
asked him in a low voice whether he had decided in future to be a
little more communicative about his affairs. ‘No, indeed,’ said Genji;
‘but I feel I owe you an apology for preventing you from spending a
happy hour with the lady whom you had come to visit. Everything in
life seems to go wrong.’ So they whispered and at the end each
solemnly promised the other not to speak of the matter to anybody. But
to the two of them it furnished a constant supply of jokes for a long
while to come, though Genji took the matter to heart more than he
showed and was determined never to get mixed up with such a tiresome
creature again. He heard however that the lady was still much ruffled,
and fearing that there might be no one at hand to comfort her he had
not the heart quite to discontinue his visits.
Chūjō, faithful to his promise, did not mention the affair to
anyone, not even to his sister, but kept it as a weapon of
self-defence should Genji ever preach high morality to him again.
Such marked preference did the Emperor show in his treatment of Genji
that even the other princes of the Blood Royal stood somewhat in awe
of him. But Tō no Chūjō was ready to dispute with him on any subject,
and was by no means inclined always to let him have his own way. He
and Aoi were the only children of the Emperor’s sister. Genji, it is
true, was the Emperor’s son; but though Chūjō’s father was only a
Minister his influence was far greater than that of his colleagues,
and as the son of such a man by his marriage with a royal princess he
was used to being treated with the greatest deference. It had never so
much as occurred to him that he was in any way Genji’s inferior; for
he knew that as regards his person at least he had no reason to be
dissatisfied; and with most other qualities, whether of character or
intelligence, he believed himself to be very adequately endowed. Thus
a friendly rivalry grew up between the two of them and led to many
diverting incidents which it would take too long to describe.
In the seventh month two events of importance took place. An empress
was appointed[18] and Genji was raised to the rank of Counsellor. The
Emperor was intending very soon to resign the Throne. He would have
liked to proclaim his new-born child as Heir Apparent in place of
Kōkiden’s son. This was difficult, for there was no political function
which would have supported such a choice. Fujitsubo’s relations were
all members of the Imperial family[19] and Genji, to whom he might
have looked for help owing to his affiliation with the Minamoto clan,
unfortunately showed no aptitude for political intrigue. The best
he could do was at any rate to strengthen Fujitsubo’s position and
hope that later on she would be able to exert her influence. Kōkiden
heard of his intentions, and small wonder if she was distressed and
astounded. The Emperor tried to quiet her by pointing out that in a
short time her son would succeed to the Throne and that she would then
hold the equally important rank of Empress Mother. But it was indeed
hard that the mother of the Heir Apparent should be passed over in
favour of a concubine aged little more than twenty. The public tended
to take Kōkiden’s side and there was a good deal of discontent. On the
night when the new Empress was installed Genji, as a Counsellor, was
among those who accompanied her to the Middle Palace. As daughter of a
previous Empress and mother of an exquisite prince she enjoyed a
consideration at Court beyond that which her new rank would have alone
procured for her. But if it was with admiring devotion that the other
great lords of her train attended her that day, it may be imagined
with what fond yet agonized thoughts Prince Genji followed the litter
in which she rode. She seemed at last to have been raised so far
beyond his reach that scarce knowing what he did he murmured to
himself the lines: ‘Now upon love’s dark path has the last shadow
closed; for I have seen you carried to a cloud-land whither none may
climb.’
As the days and months went by the child grew more and more like
Genji. The new Empress was greatly distressed, but no one else seemed
to notice the resemblance. He was not of course so handsome; how
indeed should he have been? But both were beautiful, and the world was
content to accept their beauty without troubling to compare them, just
as it accepts both moon and sun as lovely occupants of the sky.
[1] They were not allowed to leave the palace.
[2] The bird that sings in Paradise.
[3] See above p. 19.
[4] In allusion to a boy-prince of seven years old whom the jealous
gods carried off to the sky. See the _Ōkagami_.
[5] Those who stand in a circle round the dancers while the latter
change their clothes.
[6] Reading ‘Sadaijin,’ not ‘Sadaishō.’
[7] Another illegitimate son of the Emperor; Genji’s step-brother.
[8] Fujitsubo’s brother; Murasaki’s father.
[9] Another name for the _nadeshiko_, ‘Child-of-my-heart,’ see p. 58.
[10] _Shū-i Shū_ 967.
[11] A sō no koto.
[12] That hate kills is a fundamental thesis of the book.
[13] ‘So withered is the grass beneath its trees that the young colt
will not graze there and the reapers do not come.’
[14] ‘So sweet is its shade that all the summer through its leafy
avenues are thronged,’ alluding to the lady’s many lovers.
[15] The headquarters of the Ladies of the Bedchamber.
[16] An old folk-song the refrain of which is ‘At the melon-hoeing he
said he loved me and what am I to do, what am I to do?’
[17] The poem referred to is not the famous _Lute Girl’s Song_, but a
much shorter one (_Works_ x. 8) on a similar theme. O-chou is the
modern Wu-ch‘ang in Hupeh.
[18] In the song the lady says: ‘The door is not bolted or barred.
Come quickly and talk to me. Am I another’s bride, that you should be
so careful and shy?’
[18] The rank of Empress was often not conferred till quite late in a
reign. It was of course Fujitsubo whom the Emperor chose in this case.
[19] And therefore debarred from taking part in political life.